LeFlore Commissioners OK Special Election For Hospital Sales Tax

The LeFlore County Commission unanimously decided Monday to seek an Aug. 26 special election for a countywide half-percent sales tax to help fund the struggling county-owned Eastern Oklahoma Medical Center.

Built in 1955, the facility needs maintenance and capital improvements, including revamping of its electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems, EOMC Chief Executive Officer Mike Carter said Monday.

If voters approve the sales tax, it will go into effect Jan. 1, 2015, and is expected to generate about $1.6 million a year in revenue, Commission Chairman Lance Smith said. The tax would be ongoing, according to county records.

“It’s important for LeFlore County to keep our hospital open. It’s the main concern that we have,” Smith said.

Smith noted that the hospital has been an important asset for community health but also for economic development, along with police and schools, for years.

In the past two months, a Health Department order shut down the hospital’s surgery department because its environment, equipment and all, is outdated, Carter said. That led to the obstetrics department also closing because without a surgical department available to handle C-sections and other OB emergency needs, the department itself didn’t meet requirements, Carter said.

Carter said hospital officials figure the facility lost about $500,000 a month in revenues as a result of the closures.

Carter said he’s been CEO of four hospitals, and EOMC has been the only one that doesn’t supplement revenue with either a sales or millage tax. A supplemental revenue source is especially common among local hospitals, and if the tax passes, it will address EOMC’s capital needs, he said.

The order authorizing the special election specifies that revenues from the proposed tax must be used to operate, maintain, construct, equip and improve EOMC. That usage includes using it to pay debt service on obligations issued to fund improvements. The county order, however, prohibits the tax revenues from being used to employ or contract with personnel or for payroll expenses.

Carter said EOMC administrators want the hospital to stay independent. When big corporations buy rural hospitals, it isn’t uncommon for patient services to be transferred to a main company facility — “the mother-ship” as rural hospital administrators often deem it, he said.

EOMC has done a good job of community outreach. In the past fiscal year, it performed $4.5 million in uncompensated care and $354,000 in charity care. The difference between the two, he noted, is that hospitals will continue to seek compensation for the former care category but will write the charity care off its books.

“Right or wrong, many in the community use the hospital as their primary care source,” Carter said.

With the sales tax option, that money stays within the community, and that money supports a local endeavor, Carter said.

Carter said when the hospital can operate at full service, it can generate about $21 million in revenues annually. That’s significant for the community, he said.

With 280 employees, EOMC is Poteau’s largest employer and the county’s third-largest behind the Choctaw Nation and OK Foods, Carter said.